Defendant Jodi Arias testifies for the seventh day in her murder trial in Phoenix. / Charlie Leight, The Arizona Republic

by Michael Kiefer, The Arizona Republic

by Michael Kiefer, The Arizona Republic

PHOENIX - Viewers of the murder trial of Jodi Arias are expected to hear Wednesday about how she killed her secret lover after they were left in a cliffhanger the day before.

Arias, 32, is charged with the June 2008 murder of Travis Alexander, 30, who was found in the shower of his Mesa, Ariz., home with 27 stab wounds, a slit throat and a bullet in his head.

Arias has been on the witness stand in Maricopa County Superior Court since Feb. 4, as her lead attorney, Kirk Nurmi, has led her through the text messages, emails, photographs and even a recorded phone-sex call gathered into evidence to document the long lust-hate relationship she had with the man she killed.

On Tuesday, Nurmi stopped just as Arias described how she and Alexander had gone upstairs to his bathroom so Arias could take photographs of his newly toned body. Minutes later, as documented in the photos recovered from his camera, he was dead or dying on the bathroom floor.

But exactly how and why Arias killed Alexander is the testimony Arias-trial watchers have been waiting for. Barring unforeseen circumstances, that story should unfold Wednesday.

And whether the jury believes her testimony could mean the difference in whether Arias is sentenced to life or death, is convicted of the lesser crime of second-degree murder or, in an unlikely long shot, is acquitted. Arias has claimed she killed in self-defense.

Tuesday, Nurmi tediously went through emails between the troubled lovers, usually over the objections of prosecutor Juan Martinez.

Nurmi was laying out the cycle: Alexander would be angry and insulting in messages then tell Arias she was beautiful and he loved her. In the past two weeks of testimony, Arias has recounted incidents in which she said Alexander became violent or angry in person.

When asked repeatedly why she continued to communicate with Alexander, Arias said that she liked it when Alexander was affectionate and she shook with fear when he was angry.

Nurmi also tried to punch holes in some of Martinez's theories.

He displayed a photograph to show Arias had dyed her hair months before the murder, not as a disguise afterward.

He had Arias explain she rented a car a distance from her home not to conceal her movements but because her own car needed work and the rental agency offered cars only in certain towns. She chose one where her brother lived.

She denied stealing a gun from her grandparents' home and said she had no gun or knife in her possession when she set out on a road trip around California and then headed for Nevada and Utah.

And she said she had not originally intended to go to Mesa to see Alexander. Rather, she said, he persuaded her over the course of several phone calls to make a detour from Pasadena, Calif., to Mesa on her way to Salt Lake City.

When Arias arrived at Alexander's home after 4 a.m. on June 4, 2008, she said, the two slept until after noon, and then had sex for several hours.

Alexander tied her to his bed, Arias said.

As Arias was about to leave for Salt Lake City, Alexander became enraged when two CDs of photographs she gave him were too damaged to open on his computer. In his anger, she said he bent her over a desk in his office and had sex with her again.

"It was better than him getting mad," she said.

Then, they went upstairs to the bathroom to take photographs of Alexander in the shower.